News TSMC faces $1 billion US fine for doing business with Huawei

[Admin]

Doing business with Huawei may be particularly expensive as TSMC is facing a massive fine for 'unknowingly' supplying the blacklisted Chinese company with an AI processor.

TSMC faces $1 billion US fine for doing business with Huawei : Read more

 

[newtechldtech]

Last time I checked , TSMC is not a US company, how is it legal to fine them Anything ? moreover , you can stop trade with them , but "fine them" ?

 

[thestryker]

Last time I checked , TSMC is not a US company, how is it legal to fine them Anything ? moreover , you can stop trade with them , but "fine them" ?

The article here doesn't include the reason, but the Reuters one does:

Because TSMC's chipmaking equipment includes U.S. technology, the company's Taiwan factories are within reach of U.S. export controls that prevent it from making chips for Huawei, or producing certain advanced chips for any customer in China without a U.S. license.

 

[bluvg]

The article here doesn't include the reason, but the Reuters one does:

I thought it does?

"...companies like TSMC need to apply for an export license from the USDOC to supply to Huawei products containing American technologies, which includes making chips using tools developed and made by U.S.-based companies."

 

[newtechldtech]

I thought it does?

"...companies like TSMC need to apply for an export license from the USDOC to supply to Huawei products containing American technologies, which includes making chips using tools developed and made by U.S.-based companies."

still , they bought the equipment before the trade war with China , does not make any legal sense . If I buy a hammer from USA I cant use it to make equipment and sell it to whomever I want ? this is Bullying .

 

[CelicaGT]

still , they bought the equipment before the trade war with China , does not make any legal sense . If I buy a hammer from USA I cant use it to make equipment and sell it to whomever I want ? this is Bullying .

Of course it is, that is the entire point. On the world stage there is no higher authority to police countries like the US and China.

 

[thestryker]

I thought it does?

"...companies like TSMC need to apply for an export license from the USDOC to supply to Huawei products containing American technologies, which includes making chips using tools developed and made by U.S.-based companies."

There cannot be any transfer to companies on the entities list period so what's stated in the article isn't an accurate representation of the situation.

 

[thestryker]

still , they bought the equipment before the trade war with China , does not make any legal sense . If I buy a hammer from USA I cant use it to make equipment and sell it to whomever I want ? this is Bullying .

To use your analogy to try to explain it:
If you bought a hammer from the US with an agreement that you were subject to US export controls and then violated that agreement there would be a penalty.

 

[ezst036]

If you bought a hammer from the US with an agreement that you were subject to US export controls and then violated that agreement there would be a penalty.

Well, it is clearly bullying to enforce an agreement that was made with mutual consent. (By two very capable entities, [1]TSMC and [2]USgov)

/sarc

 

[thekingofALLmonkz]

RIP DPP approval ratings

 

[das_stig]

What it also shows is the USA was right to block Huawei.

 

[Findecanor]

BTW. Sophgo is also known for RISC-V - based CPU chips, such as the 64-core Sophgo SG2042.
The RISC-V community has been waiting for the follow-up SG2044, and the SG2380, where the latter was supposed to have performance-cores from US-based company SiFive.

In other words: that Sophgo would have ordered large chips with lots of computing power from TSMC for themselves was not unthinkable.

I suppose the SG2380 will never see the light of day then ... Bummer.

 

[newtechldtech]

To use your analogy to try to explain it:
If you bought a hammer from the US with an agreement that you were subject to US export controls and then violated that agreement there would be a penalty.

Still , I dont see it is fair because Taiwan is an Ally , and second , the equipment were bought before the trade war , this is not how you deal with an ally . too harsh penalty and I dont think American Allies would feel the same again internally even if they smile at your face.

 

[thestryker]

Still , I dont see it is fair because Taiwan is an Ally , and second , the equipment were bought before the trade war , this is not how you deal with an ally . too harsh penalty and I dont think American Allies would feel the same again internally even if they smile at your face.

It seems like you're confusing several things and what's actually going on. I'll try to explain it hopefully better.

First things first: time of purchase and countries being allies are completely irrelevant to the conversation.

The ban on Huawei has nothing to do with any trade war they were put on the entities list due to technology transfer to Iran without licenses. This further devolved into a semiconductor ban and being officially labeled a national security threat.

That all means doing business with Huawei if you're a company from the US or using protected US technologies isn't allowed. This is part of the price paid to have access to said technology and TSMC is very well aware of it. This is why they immediately stopped sales and reported the violation when it was discovered by Techinsights.

I doubt they'll get hit with the maximum penalty unless it's discovered that they should have known about it or someone did know and said nothing.